Ed Lin

Gilead Sciences bought a large block of shares of antiviral-therapeutics developer Assembly Biosciences as part of an amended investment and funding agreement.

Gilead paid $20.1 million on Dec. 19 for 940,500 Assembly shares, an average price of $21.37 each. Gilead now owns 2.21 million Assembly shares, a 29.9% stake, according to a form Gilead filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The shares were newly issued by Assembly, and represented a 35% premium to a calculated 30-day volume-weighted average price immediately before the date of purchase.

Under the amendment, Gilead will also provide $10 million in accelerated funding to support Assembly's pipeline of antiviral therapeutic candidates for herpesviruses, hepatitis D virus, and hepatitis B virus. Assembly expects to release data "from multiple ongoing clinical studies in the coming year," including the interim Phase 1b proof-of-concept data readout for ABI-5366, a long-acting helicase-primase inhibitor for treatment of recurrent genital herpes, projected for the first half of 2025.

The amendment adjusts the option timepoints and option payment structure for ABI-6250, an orally bioavailable viral entry inhibitor for hepatitis D virus.

Assembly said the stock sale and accelerated funding will extend its cash runway to mid-2026.

"Gilead's further investment strengthens our balance sheet as we look ahead to multiple key clinical data readouts for our novel antiviral candidates in 2025," said Assembly CEO Jason Okazaki in a news release.

Gilead didn't respond to a request for comment on the stock purchase and amended agreement. It remains Assembly's largest shareholder.

Inside Scoop is a regular Barron's feature covering stock transactions by corporate executives and board members -- so-called insiders -- as well as large shareholders, politicians, and other prominent figures. Due to their insider status, these investors are required to disclose stock trades with the Securities and Exchange Commission or other regulatory groups.

Write to Ed Lin at edward.lin@barrons.com and follow @BarronsEdLin.

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January 03, 2025 21:30 ET (02:30 GMT)

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